@OP

Abaribe is a spokeman for the Senate and not for Ndigbo.He could've been a Yoruba,Hausa, an Ijaw or a Fulani.At least from your own post, you can see other  groups (including the Igbo Youths) in support of the SNC.However,this does not mean they are demanding for the same thing.So pls,let's desist from saying things that can easily turn this good thread upside down.Thanks

We need 2 decide d law that will guid us. Enough of British received law of 1900 & decree 1999.

Those that makes peaceful change impossible will make violent change possible (sic); Because change is the only constant thing in life.
Of what use is the representation when the views/ opinion of those you claim to represent cannot be heard?
We cannot continue like this in Nigeria; the way forward must be a burning issue to desire for.

Revolutnz:

@OP

Abaribe is a spokeman for the Senate and not for Ndigbo.He could've been a Yoruba,Hausa, an Ijaw or a Fulani.[/b]At least from your own post, you can see other  groups (including the Igbo Youths) in support of the SNC.However,this does not mean they are demanding for the same thing.So pls,let's desist from saying things that can easily turn this good thread upside down.Thanks

Indeed. Did he take this decision alone for anyone to now foolishly malign his ethnicity ? Or is he just announcing the decision made by an entire group of selfish individuals, [b]from all corners of Nigeria, who have now chosen to hold us to ransom? It weakens the soul that Nigerians can never focus on what matters.

niddamugu:

When it comes to sensitive issues on national interest, the Igbos have always been used to kick against them. I'm not surprised because they love "ego". We know them and they have always used the same tactics to be in govt - Ojo Madueke, Uche Chukwumerije, Arthur Nzeribe, Daniel Kanu, the list is endless and now there is an addition to the already long list - Enyinnaya Abaribe. So sad  

My guy , we are going nowhere with this blame game. As an example, those , for me, who have tried to kill the PIB with their official clout would include Mark, Ekweremadu, Bankole and others. Now, the sabotage of a bill so important to Nigeria's development involved leaders from all corners of Nigeria. When will we grow bright enough, even as history supplies us with too many lessons and examples, to see through the crude deception and grow more able to challenge those who deploy 'divide-and-rule' tactics to keep us down while they plunder mercilessly?

It seems Nigeria aint going anywhere anytime soon. What a country.

Guys,the average nairalander is at least educated up to ssce level.we shld be able to respect each other.if a tribe is accused,let us defend without malice.if we try to understand each other,we can really find lastin'g solutions to the problems in the country.don't let us allow crimes committed by past leaders who are either dead or on the edge of their graves jeopardize our reasoning.bros,let us grow up.love every nl.

OUR PROBLEM IN THIS NATION FALLS LARGELY INTO TWO CATEGORIES. THE PRIMARY ONE IS CORRUPTION AND THE SECONDARY ONE IS SELFISHNESS. NO ONE CARES WHAT HAPPENS TO THE OTHER PERSON AS LONG AS HE AND HIS FOLKS ARE LIVING IN COMFORT.

IMAGINE THE BAS.TARD ABARIBE DEY TALK NONSENSE. GOD WILL PUNISH HIM FOR THAT RUBBISH STATEMENT HE MADE. WE MUST AND WE WILL HAVE THE SNC.

I HAVE ALWAYS ASKED PEOPLE THAT GIVEN THE HUGE SALARIES AND ALLOWANCES THOSE (DIS)HONOURABLE REPS AND SENATORS EARN, DO WE REALLY NEED TO HAVE TWO HOUSES IN OUR DEMOCRACY?

THE IDIOT.S THAT DRAFTED OUR CONSTITUTION JUST COPIED AND PASTED FOREIGN DEMOCRACIES VERBATIM. INSTEAD OF THEM TO APPLY THEIR COMMON SENSE WHEN COPYING AND TRY TO ADAPT THEIR COPIED WORK TO SUIT OUR PECULIAR CONDITIONS.

[size=8pt][size=8pt]British Government I thought Nigeria is an Experiment. Can we record our findings and Try these Merged Nations Living alone and also record our Findings. Putting our results on a Spreadsheet will help You (British) take a good decision of either to re-merge or un-merge this entities living together as one.[/size][/size]

Sooner or later (my guess is later - 50yrs from now) Nigerians will realize that wishes alone are not enough to break this country into various nations, or convene a "sovereign" national conference.  A sovereign national conference organized and controlled by the current crop of corrupt leaders will produce worse conditions that we currently have anyway. Secondly the so-called owners of Nigeria are willing and able to crush Nigerians who want to demand change - think Army and Tanks in Lagos only a few weeks ago. You people have to find a way to get the owners out of the way first.

Our best bet is to try to develop some sense of nationalism and work with patriotism to make this democracy work.  Nigerians do not seem to have the will to revolts massively, while sacrificing their lives, in order to bring about the necessary changes. The owners of Nigeria will continue to use your love for tribalism and bigotry to keep you all in bondage.

As long as you continue to idol worship these leaders with Ranka dedes instead of stoning, I'm afraid they will keep you in bondage for 50 more years. Truth is bitter.

Fools. They die as the man dies that does nothing in the facec of tyranny. Senators, know that he who makes peaceful change impossible, makes violent change inevitable.

ndu_chucks:

Sooner or later (my guess is later - 50yrs from now) Nigerians will realize that wishes alone are not enough to break this country into various nations, or convene a "sovereign" national conference.  A sovereign national conference organized and controlled by the current crop of corrupt leaders will produce worse conditions that we currently have anyway. Secondly the so-called owners of Nigeria are willing and able to crush Nigerians who want to demand change - think Army and Tanks in Lagos only a few weeks ago. You people have to find a way to get the owners out of the way first.

Our best bet is to try to develop some sense of nationalism and work with patriotism to make this democracy work.  Nigerians do not seem to have the will to revolts massively, while sacrificing their lives, in order to bring about the necessary changes. The owners of Nigeria will continue to use your love for tribalism and bigotry to keep you all in bondage.

As long as you continue to idol worship these leaders with Ranka dedes instead of stoning, I'm afraid they will keep you in bondage for 50 more years. Truth is bitter.

Indeed.  One can discern the sheer amount of work to be done to change the mentality of Nigerians when ostensibly educated Nigerians can malign the ethnic group of Abaribe because he annouced an expected decision made by the majority out of 109 Senators in Nigeria.

This should not even be about Abaribe or his ethnic group at all if we Nairalanders are even minimally politically sophisticated. It should be about rallying others, through constituency signature collation, to challenge this call Senators have made callously and dismissively.  

If Senators are truly the representative of the people, we should test , statistically, the number of Nigerians they indeed  recieved input from to conclude authoritatively that we do not need an SNC. They should be our servants and representatives instead ordinary Nigerians acts as if it is the other way round.

I am fed up of Nigeria and now totally convinced many of us are wasting our time because the battle will always be lost if the people themselves have no awareness of 'people power' and prefer viewing everything through sentimental, feudalistic, clannish and ethnic lenses.

We have been so blinded by tribalism. Is the issue here about the IBO man or is it that the senate refused to improve ?

The issue of SNC, regionalism and true federalism may be difficult to implement as long as PDP is in power. The compromised power structure in Nigeria appears to favour them. The corrupt base of our government is the right platform needed to sustain a false political movement like PDP which has continued to deprive Nigerians of their basic rights for over 12 years now. Here's what I said in a thread I opened yesterday.

https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-870596.0.html

I have observed that the clamour for regional independence and autonomy by several "nation-states" in Nigeria is presently at its peak. While it is no doubt that hosting a national referendum today across the length and breadth of today's Nigeria will yield an overwhelming support for a regionally-inclined Nigeria, I have my sincere concern for the government in power. Today, PDP controls at least 65% of Nigeria's public offices and therefore, has an option of bringing the yearnings of the Nigerian people to fruition. My findings from the PDP web resources has shown that the party is not ready or even thinking of a regional system of government. For example, a statement from Wikipedia states that:

"The PDP strives to maintain the status quo on oil revenue distribution. Though the PDP government setup the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) to address the needs of the oil-producing Niger Delta states, it has rebuffed repeated efforts to revert back to the 50% to 50% federal-to-state government revenue allocation agreement established in 1966 during the First Republic"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People%27s_Democratic_Party_%28Nigeria%29


A further study from the PDP website, although highly deceptive, states that:

"Restructuring Nigeria in the spirit of true federalism and responsible tiers of government, so as to achieve a just and equitable society"

http://www.peoplesdemocraticparty.net/about/manifesto


Leaving all these quotes aside, the "body language" of the PDP over the years has constantly shown that the party is not interested in implementing the wish for a greater and purer form of federalism. I cannot fathom why a party such as our PDP has proven rather non-chalant to the wishes of the Nigerian people. I may rationally attribute their queer stubbornness to the fear of the unknown. For example, could it be that a regional system of governance be the end of the domineering party called PDP? or perhaps, in a more milder form, the end of their corrupt "honeymoon" since 1999? Also, could it be that a lot of PDP investors and financiers fraternity stand to lose a lot from the regional autonomy as everyone will "occupy" their papa resources?

As I write this, I want to let everyone know that greatest threat to the Nigerian clamour for regionalism may be PDP afterall. A Nigeria with loose super-structure in a regional setting might not favour PDP and it is becoming obvious daily as they are loosing grip of the solution to the nation's numerous problems.

Tell me what you think about my observation, is PDP ready for true federalism and regionalism?

Gbawe:

Indeed. One can discern the sheer amount of work to be done to change the mentality of Nigerians when ostensibly educated Nigerians can malign the ethnic group of Abaribe because he annouced an expected decision made by the majority out of 109 Senators in Nigeria.

This should not even be about Abaribe or his ethnic group at all if we Nairalanders are even minimally politically sophisticated. It should be about rallying others, through constituency signature collation, to challenge this call Senators have made callously and dismissively.

If Senators are truly the representative of the people, we should test , statistically, the number of Nigerians they indeed recieved input from to conclude authoritatively that we do not need an SNC. They should be our servants and representatives instead ordinary Nigerians acts as if it is the other way round.

I am fed up of Nigeria and now totally convinced many of us are wasting our time because the battle will always be lost if the people themselves have no awareness of 'people power' and prefer viewing everything through sentimental, feudalistic, clannish and ethnic lenses.

+1000. Let us subject the popularity of their decision to a Referendum.

The civil Society, here is where you come in. Occupy the Senate and HOR now.

I for one don't see why a so called 'SNC' will change anything - OBJ experimented with it (albeit without the 'sovereign' tag) and the delegates could not agree on anything because of entrenched regional interests in the status quo.

It is outright folly to think that groups that can't agree on issues now will magically agree once a SNC is convened.

As for this current question of Abaribe, it would be useful if the details of how the senate reached the decision was revealed. That way we could count those who voted for or against it and then maybe identify any regional leanings therein.

If a region then felt its representatives in the senate were not doing as expected, then they can start the process of recalling their senators through the ballot box.

Even with all the flaws of the current set up, we MUST find ways to constructively engage with the system and make changes from within. Anything else is a waste of time.

This convo is going to end as Igbo issue, watch out. Its not difficult to know who is who on nairaland even without seing their faces, some jump right into it with two legs without precaution as long as Igbo is mentioned. Big shame.

Anyway, Ndu_chuks and Gbawe you guys are right. I wont be shocked if in 50 yrs we're still discussing the same thing.
May God help us.

The irrelevance of a Sovereign National Conference in this generation and the vision of State responsibility.

With call for a sovereign national conference, I think some senior citizens are just looking for a forum were old compatriots can rant their anger and bring back arguments of the 1960’s that took us nowhere . I am not convinced that we need a forum to discuss how to coexist, Nigerians of the 21st century love their country and are not carrying grudges about the civil war.
I don’t have any problem with Northerners, and they too don’t have a problem with Nigerians from other parts of the country. The uprising in some parts of the country is as a result of the irresponsibility and visionlessness of the federal government. Investing in the wrong people the wrong way.
MEND and other militant groups in the Niger delta are quiet today because they are getting free money from the federal government, the day it stops flowing they will go back to their arms in the creeks, same thing in the north, whenever some northern elites stop getting free money from oil bunkering (which they carry out through the military stationed in the Niger Delta creeks lifting tones of crude oil unaccounted for), they start riling up passions to make the country ungovernable . These senseless killings have been happening in the North, these killings characterized the first tenure of Obasanjo, but now they just have a name “BokoHarm” but as usual with no clear and sane reasons for their attacks as has always been the case.
Someone said in an interview on T.V lately that some groups of people are planning on breaking up Nigeria, either through violence or through the call for a sovereign national conference. This is happening at a time when some other sets of people are praying for peace and prosperity and others are working hard to transform Nigeria. The nation Nigeria is the umbrella of protection to over 200 ethnic nationalities, and God forbid if it breaks, it can’t breakup into North and South only, but into over 20 different countries.
The fact that some Nigerian’s want the Nation to split is not the problem to me, because even in the United States of America, they are still some dissenting voices who still think the states should not be united. What is important are the reasons behind the Idea. Unlike in the United States the reasons for a breakup are not strong enough because everybody is cared for; in education, medicare, welfare etc.
Can we say the same about Nigeria: about the millions of children in the north without education, a clue to civilization and without hope of breaking the cycle of poverty in their lives; can we say so about the millions of farmers in the south-south that can’t go to their farms anymore because their lands have lost its fertility as a result of oil spillages, can we say so about our young people who work so hard to start up and sustain a business but the harsh realities of the situation of this country keeps undermining their efforts hence they fail, but they still keep nursing their dreams and trying harder and harder.
Someone once said that we need a philanthropist as the president, so that he can share the wealth equally so it gets to everyone, but I think our current situation has little to do with an individual in office, but so much to do with just one line in our constitution; “ Revenue allocation to states”.
Because of this line politics in Nigeria has become one that makes the brilliant dull, the wise foolish, the honest corrupt, the healthy sick, the loud quiet and unfortunately, the "poor" rich.
How can a nation of over 150 million people in 36 states be solely dependent on revenue from crude oil drilled from about 6 states ,
How can all the elites and politicians in the north down their tools and fold their arms waiting for federal allocation every month. How can the federal government stop states like ondo and others from harnesses their resources and developing their people. The GDP of every state in Nigeria is principally the money given to it by the federal government every month.
So instead of our federal government to promote creativity and production, it is sustaining a system of distribution and consumption. And this is the catalyst for lazy leadership, lazy followership and thuggery in our societies.
Some few months ago Apple overtook Exxon Mobil as the richest company on earth, but some of our political leaders still think that no other state in Nigeria can be richer than states in the Niger Delta; only because they have closed their minds to everything else, even to the treasures in mineral resources and arable lands all over Nigeria.
A certain professor from the North at the last national conference organized by the Obasanjo’s regime argued against state resource control, saying that states from the Niger Delta will become super rich and northern states would become dead poor; the question I would have loved to ask him if I was there is “would it have been better off if all the states in Nigeria are dead poor. This is the typical retrogressive thinking of the 20th century African, pulling their neighbors down. 21st century Africans think differently, The fact that some states would be rich would be an advantage to other states, if Bauchi state for instance wants to refine and export oil, it can build a refinery and exchange its locally produced crops with crude from some state in the Niger Delta thereby creating business partnerships.
Kogi state is about the poorest in the country, but If only Ajaokuta steel can start production, the Nigerian economy will get the attention of America, Europe and Asia. But governors not charged and pushed with the responsibility to grow their state economies has been the bane of our country.
If we stop allocating money to the states every month, The government of kogi state will do what has to be done to bring the steel company to production, the Kaduna state government will start thinking of increasing the capacity of its refinery for export purposes. Every state governor will start working with entrepreneur and wooing investors to sustain the economy of the state. We will start seeing states forming coalitions, co operations and building business relationships.
California the home of Hollywood is about the richest state in the U.S, with a population of over 41million people, if it were a country, it would be the 8th riches country in the world, few years ago its governor went to China to form a coalition with the Chinese government in other to enforce copyright laws and stop the people of china from pirating Hollywood products. This is what our governors will be doing if we stop this monthly allocation debacle, protecting and fighting for the businesses in their states, instead of buying up hotels and houses in Europe and America with the monthly allocation meant for his people, that is political monarchy precipitate lazy leadership.
I recommend that the parliament amends the constitution and stop allocating money to the states. This is the only way Nigerians in every state and every geopolitical zone can get back to work and our leadership and followership can once again become responsible. The federal government can give a period of six months or one year before it stops sharing money to the states. During this period of six months or a year every state can partner with entrepreneurs to plan on what to setup and how to build its own economy , and entrepreneurs through state governors can take a loan from the Central Bank to help businesses get off the ground, whether building of refineries, Dams, agriculture, steel companies etc. while the federal government strengthens it tax collection and investigation procedures, and EFCC to go after tax evaders.
The most prosperous nations in the world today, their federal governments live on taxes from its citizens. You will never hear that the American government is building farms or poultries, they empower their citizens to build farms and poultries, The American government will not go into drilling oil because they have Exxon Mobil, neither will the British government because they have British Petroleum. So why is NNPC buying and selling petroleum for us, these are structures that fan the ambers of fraud in the country. It’s time to allow our Oando, Con oil and other oil companies to do the drilling to meet our OPEC quota and meet our local needs, while the state governments do everything to make them succeed including protection from militants, and the federal government just gets its tax from the state and all these unnecessary agitations and tensions and fight against the federal government to destabilize it will be settled at a family meeting level.
When we stop allocating money to the states and every state manages itself, it will give room for competition and coalition which will further enhance development and modernization, job creation, effective state policing and eradicate corruption. Lazy Governors would then learn how to sustain peace in their states and go out to source for investors.
At the most the federal government can set aside a trust fund after scrapping NDDC (which is just duplicating the responsibilities of the state governments) managed by the central bank, so that they can grant loans to states that require funds in other to help entrepreneurs establish businesses in their state, and then the federal government can hand over most of the luggage responsibilities its carrying and allow the states which are the nations foundations to hold the building called Nigeria.
Some class of people will never agree to a progressive idea like this. we know them and we know what they stand for (The rotten status quo), but we should not give much attention to some retrogressive selfish individuals, we should spread the net, talk to more intelligent people in the north, and get them to understand the vision of state responsibility, if we keep depending on just the few notable northern leaders that have succeeded over the years in impoverishing their people and producing elements like Boko Haram to be a part of state responsibility, then we are making a mistake because they are indeed the problem of this country and the ones perpetually drawing us backwards as a nation.
So let’s stand as brothers, with everyone’s hands on the plough and lets build the Nigeria that the whole world is waiting for, and out of this long political darkness, we can starting hoping for better days ahead. Thank You
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If this Nonsense Government of The Muda4cker GEJ survives till 2015 then we should call on all Nigerians to boycott THE ELECTIONS. Dont vote for any of these muda4ckers until we hold a SNC and trash out Nigeria for Good.

Yes Chuxyn, you understand where Eldorado is and what goodies awaits. The strange challenge is, just how in the world do we get there. The how is the question.

@Reference, several ways, we can sponsor a bill to the National Assembly, and our next uprising would be for state in-dependency, this will definately enhance mutual cooperation and promote mutual respect